Bonded by Blood

T H I R T Y S E V E N

"Shut up!" Nikolai's voice erupted with fury, his grip tightening.

"What's the end goal here!? Huh!?" Hudson's voice cracked faintly. "I've already told you before, I'm willing to do whatever it is you want! Need money? I can give you that! My parents have plenty of it!"

"I said shut up!" Nikolai vehemently repeated, forcefully pushing me back into the corner where I had just woken up. "Make any more noise, and I'll kill you both. Understood!?"

"Why are you doing this?" I looked up at him and his eyes lingered on my face for a few moments before he stepped closer.

"All your questions will be answered soon enough." Nikolai knelt down, sliding a finger beneath my chin to slowly prop my face up at him. "The only thing that matters right now is that you be a good boy, understood?" His cold, hooded eyes glistened as they locked with my tear-filled ones, his pink pillowy lips remaining an unyielding expression of pure numbness.

"I... I just wanna go home." I begged. "Please... Just let me go home." The world were barely able to escape my lips as I choked with countess emotions.

"Are you gonna be a good boy?" He asked, devoid from any emotion regarding my desperate plea. "Answer me." He added gruffly, maintaining his cold and distant tone.

Powerless and defeated, I kept quiet as I eventually nodded up at him. With a stomach churning silence, his fingers finally leave my chin as he proceeded to leave, slamming the basement door behind him. "We're never getting out of here." I whispered towards Hudson once the basement was locked once more. "I'm never gonna see him again..."

"Hey, stop that! We're gonna find a way out of here, alright?" Hudson interjected. "We'll get through this, and once we do we're gonna make that sick fuck pay for doing this to us, you hear me!?"

"No, I'm afraid not." With my weary mind and my fading spirit, my thoughts uncontrollably drifted off to Dydan.

Hudson's brows furrowed at my defeated attitude. "Now is not the time to lose hope. We need a plan!"

"There's no use. I can barely even walk." I sniffed, pulling out a piece of Lumianth I had mistakenly kept in my pocket at the time I was making ointment with Nikolai. "If we both try to escape, I would only slowly you down. The least I can do is try use this to put up a fight. If it works like he said it's supposed to, I-I'll be able to get you the key and buy you some time to run."

"What about you?"

"It doesn't matter, I'm better of dead."

"Are you crazy? I'm not leaving here without you. We're both getting out of here! Come on! Don't you wanna see your boyfriend again or something!?" He exclaimed.

"He'd be better off without me." My lips wobbled. "He deserves love, t-true love."

"And you don't!?"

"It's far too late for me to talk about what I deserve." I said meekly, swallowing back as much tears as I could. I looked down and felt for the a necklace around my neck. I held it in my hand, placing the stone on my palm for a closer look. It somehow still glittered despite the dust and grime I was covered in. My unbridled sobs was interrupted by a laugh, let out only to disguise even more tears. "This is one of the most beautiful things anyone has ever given me. At first, I couldn't accept it because all throughout my life I've always felt undeserving, but he insisted on giving it to me anyway. He told me that I deserve everything."

A torrent of emotion had visibly gone over Hudson's face as I continued my faint and broken ramble, rummaging through my pocket for my Walkman. "I-I wish had enough money to give him something as beautiful as this necklace, but I'm afraid this is all I can give back. It's all that I am. I-I think he would've at least pretended to like it." I tiredly rolled my head on the wall to look directly at Hudson. "Please, tell me you'll give it to him. It belonged to my mother so it means the world to me. I hope it will remind him of me just like how this necklace reminds me of him." I held my tiny Walkman out to Hudson who hesitantly took it.